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Limited Government
----------- Taken from The Democratic Freedom Caucus Platform ----------- The Democratic Freedom Caucus advocates Limited Government, which includes the following: Essential Government Services Government should provide any necessary services that cannot currently be provided adequately by the non-government sector (non-profit or for-profit groups). However, government should not provide any services that can be provided adequately by the non-government sector. Government Incentives For those essential services that need to be provided by government, we should attempt to introduce incentives for government efficiency. Constitutional Democracy The U.S. government was founded as a constitutional democracy, which means a democracy that respects the wishes of the majority of voters, as long as the rights of minorities are not violated (including minorities based on race, religion, lifestyle, or opinion). That is why the U.S. Constitution includes a Bill of Rights, which lists individual rights that are not allowed to be violated. Since everyone is in the minority on at least some issues, the Bill of Rights protects the rights of all of us. The Bill of Rights should be strictly enforced. Fully Informed Juries Juries should be informed of their traditional right and duty to judge the law as well as the facts. If a jury believes a person is being prosecuted for a law that is unconstitutional, then the jury has the right to let that person go free. The jury’s right to judge the law was considered by some of the writers of the U.S. Constitution to be one of the most important checks to prevent the government from violating the Constitution and individual rights. The right of juries to judge the law has played an important historical role: protecting newspapers against censorship laws (such as the famous Peter Zenger case); protecting runaway slaves against pro-slavery laws - in cases where they were allowed to have jury trials; and protecting workers against laws that prevented them from forming unions. Juries should be selected at random, rather than carefully packed by the prosecution or the defense - who should not be allowed to screen out prospective jurors except in very limited cases, such as when a prospective juror has a close relationship with the defendant. (Some outrageous cases of jury-packing have involved selecting all-white juries for trials of racially-motivated crimes.) When citizens become informed of the full rights, powers, and importance of juries, it is likely that more citizens will see jury service as a part of responsible citizenship, like voting. With fewer people trying to get out of jury service, and less packing of juries, the quality of juries would also be likely to improve. U.S. Defense, Not World Police The military should defend the territory of the U.S., rather than being the world’s policeman. The U.S. military should only be involved in situations where there is a direct threat to U.S. territory. Our military should certainly not be used to prop up foreign dictators, or to subsidize multinational corporations. See also * Personal Liberty * Economic Liberty * Social Responsibility Category:Platform Category: